disasters

What is (and is not) the all-hazards approach

Not focused on specific hazards; Is focused on disaster risk reduction that is
helpful across hazards

How did the Chicago School of Sociology influence disaster research?

Focus on urban ethnography (getting out into the community to observe)

Focus on symbolic interaction and collective behavior

Samual H. Prince’s dissertation on the Halifax explosion is notable for what reason?

First systematic study of disaster social science.

What was the leading group of social scientists at the University of Chicago who
researched disasters in the 1950s?

National Opinion Research Center

what major contribution came out of the Disaster Research group, which followed the previous group at Chicago?

a comprehensive review of the state of disaster research

who founded the Disaster Research center, when and wehre did this occur, and when did it move to UD?

Quarantelli, Dynes, and Haas, 1963, the Ohio state university 1985

the classic approach to studying disasters emphasized which two aspects?

social disruption and emergence

Carr, and others in the early years of the field, saw disasters as what three things?

rooted in social change, negative and agent caused

what key idea does a social vulnerability approach to studying disasters?

the cause of disruption is rooted in the social structure

what are the 4 main properties of disasters that Kreps describes?

forewarning, magnitude of impact, scope of impact and duration of impact

what is collective behavior?

forms of social behavior where conventions cease to guide social action and people collectively transcend, bypass, or subvert established institutional patterns and structures

define milling

communication where individuals: collectively try to define a situation, propose and adopt new norms for behaviors, and seek a coordinated action to find a solution to their shared problem at hand

what is an example of milling is an emergency?

if the fir alarm goes off in class and everyone is looking silently back and forth at each other to determine what to do: if they ignore it, pack up and leave, leave their bags and evacuate immediately, or something else

define keynoting

those who advance suggested interpretations of an event

what is an example of keynoting in an emergency?

if the fire alarm goes off in class, everyone is milling, and then suddenly a student gets up and says “ im getting out of here” and leaves, that keynote to others that it is time to evacuate and everyone immediately follows.

is widespread role abandonment by responders likely or rare in disasters?

rare

when is role abandonment by responders most likely in a disaster?

when they dont know if their family members are safe

are disasters great equalizers? yes or no? why not

no, people are disproportionately impacted by disasters, and this is related to routine vulnerabilities

is widespread panic a common feature of disasters? yes or no

no

when is panic most likely in an emergency situation?

when a window of opportunity for escape is quickly closing

what is an misconception that “disasters impacts are short lived and things soon return to normal’ problematic?

interest wanes as the headlines move on, just when needs related to short and long term recovery become most pressing

is widespread looting common after most disasters yes or no?

no

what is meant by appropriating behavior in a disaster? what is an example

often confused with looting, this involves people taking necessary things, from their perspective in that environment. Responders may commander property to help, and sometimes that may not be dressed that part or emergent responders so people mistake them. OR people may also be deprived of necessary support like food for a long periods of time and take what does not belong to them to survive.

when have instances of looting after disaters’s been most noted?

when there is a pre existing widespread inequality and conflict. the disaster becomes a social occasion to express push back against the system

what distinguishes disasters from emergencies?

in disasters: more organizations come together that are unfamiliar with each other, adjustments must be made for losing autonomy and freedom of action, more than usual private and public sector interaction, suspension of du e process or normal procedures, different performance standards

what distinguish disasters from catastrophes?

in catastrophes: most or all of the communities built structures is heavily impacted ( can facilities and operational bases of most emergency organizations are themselves usually hit,

local officials are unable to undertake their usual work role ( this often extends into recovery period),

help from nearby communities functions can not be provided,

most or all of the everyday community functions are sharply and concurrently interrupted,

the mass media system socially constructs catarophes even more than they do disasters( longer converge by national news, command point of view, greater gulf between electronic. media and print media, less filtering and screening of stories)

mass and extended out migration or displacement of residents

what are the four types of organizations in the DRC Typolgy, what are their features, and what is an example?

1- established routine, tasks and structure: police securing an area after disaste

2-extending new tasks and routine structures: a thetre company making masks during COVID

3-expanding routine tasks and new structures: the American red cross

4-emergent new tasks and structure: a bucket brigade looking for survivors after an earth queake

what does “role” refer to?

set of behaviors expected of a person who occupies a certain position or status in a particular culture or society ( relative to others)

what does role allocation describe in the disaster context? what is an example?

weather disaster roles are consistent with pre disaster roles. In other words, what people are doing EG if a police officer is engaged in security patrol pre disaster vs shopkeepers maintaining a perimeter of a massive building fire)

what do role relationships describe in disaster context? what is an example?

ether the links between people are continuous or discontinous compared to their pre disaster links for heir role. in other words, with whom are they interacting: EGif a firefighter and police work together to maintain a perimeter of a massive building fire vs a shopkeeper wokring with the fire fighters

what does behavior or performance describe in the disaster context?

the way the role is actually acted out is similar or different from the pre disaster context. in other words, how something is done EG if the makeshift hospital is set up in a retail shop across the street as ambulances cant get through the area. The way care is provided will be different than in a hospital

what does the role expectation describe? what is an example?

the commonly shared norms about how a person should behave in a particular role, I expect a firefighter to put out fires and prioritize life safety

what isa. role conflict?

a situations in which 2 or more roles make an incompatible demand on a person. a responding firefighter finds out their child was seriously hurt in an accident. do they stay at the scene of the fire or rush to the hospital to be with their child?

what is a role strain?

when competing demands within the same role. a firefighter has to follow procedure and not enter a building about to collapse, but the parent pleads with them to go in and save their trapped child. they have to protect themselves as well was follow procedures, but they also want to save the life of a child. They struggle with how to be a good firefighter when it mans doing one thing over the other

what is a norm?

an established standard of behavior maintained by society

what is emergent norm theory?

a theory of collective behavior that suggests people move to form a shared definition of the situation during relatively normless situations

how do people tend to evacuate? how does “ women and children first” not take that into account?

in social units, if you separate people, it will actually delay the evacuation an risk more lives

how does Rule 2B, in American Dunkirk, illustrate why mariners might have been well suited to improvise as part of their culture?

the rule REQUIRES mariners to deviate from rules to aviod immediate danger. that established rule makes it easier to begin managing and taking risks under ambiguous conditions

what three factors led to successful waterborne evacuation on 9/11 without prior planning?

a strong local network and sense of community. a deep level of local environmental knowledge. willingness to be flexible with existing rules and procedures while also recognizing that new rules may be required

when is the incident command system helpful and when is the emergent human resources model better ?

ICS when the event can best described as an incident and involves concentrated and familiar set of actors working in familiar areas of expertise. EHRM when events are unexpected, largely dispersed, and involves unfamiliar actors involved in non routine tasks

American Dunkirk describes breaking rules with vigilance. what three conditions were helpful when rules were broken or bent?

the disregard for rules is thoughtful, the underlying purpose of the rules were preserved, deliberation with others

according to Kreps, why is only a modest level of preparedness, especially at the local level, usually a reasonable expectation?

limited resources and limited political commitment

improvisation can occur along domains, resources, activities and tasks. What does each refer to and provide an example?

domains are unites ( like a ferry company)

resources are human and material capacities ( like boats or mariners)

activities are divisions of labor within activities ( moving people by boat from Manhattan to brookly)

what makes quick response disaster research unique, compared to other sociological research?

timing ( setting already distorted, perishable data)

Access ( ad hoc work of gaining access, reliance on serendipity)

generalizability ( non experimental as difficult to compare events, rarely be able to select setting, concern about data contamination)

what is triangulation?

using multiple methods or data sources to develop a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon

what are the two reasons triangulation is important for quick response research?

it can mitigate the fact that the environment and people change rapidly and the lack of baseline information

what is an example of using triangulation in disaster research?

i want to know how quickly it took firefighters to arrive on the scene of a search and resuce operation. I understand that firefighters may underestimate how long it took them to arrive, and the victims might underestimate their speed. I decide to talk to the victims, firefighters and request to look at security camera footage from businesses near the site

what does IRB stand for and what does it do?

institutional Review Board

an appropriately designated committees that reviews and approves/ disapproves research involving human subjects

what is perishable data?

data that will be gone or contaminated very time, sometimes quite quickly

give several examples that illustrate what makes this data perishable in the disaster research context

people coming to the area to help in unexpected ways may go home and not be able to be identified/located

changes in the environment may happen very quickly and often. if you are not there, you miss it

with so many new things happening, people may forget many key aspects over time

people may be so preoccupied with their own response that they may not be aware of what else or whom else is involved

data might be destroyed

what two things help foresight in crisis management?

experince and organization for rapid detection

what is a crisis?

a phase of disorder in the seemingly normal development of a system

what are the three characteristics of a crisis?

a threat ( real or perceived) relatively unexpected, and urgency or need to act ( or things will get worse)

what process is central to defining something aaas a crisis?

social construction ( or said another way, a crisis only becomes a crisis when it is socially defined and as such)

what is an example of a crisis that was not a disaster and why?

year 2000-

threat:failure of all the computer based systems

relactivelty unexpected, as the millennium approached

urgency to act: before the clocks turned to 00

nothing happened when the clocks changed, potentially because some measures were take, or also potentially because it didn’t have the effect people were worried about

it had the elements of a crisis, but it did not end up resulting in a disaster

what five critical challenges for crisis management?

sense making, decision making, meaning making, terminating and learning

according to Gill and Richie, what is a Natech” event?

when a natural hazard triggers a technological hazard for disaster

what does ontological security refer to, according to Giddens?

the confidence most people have in the continuity of their self identity and in constancy of the surrounding social and material environments of action

according to Freudenburg, what is recreancy?

the failure of experts or specialized organizations to execute properly the responsibilities to the broader collectivity with which they have been implicitly or explicits entrusted

what is the term Frudenberg and other suse to describe when, after technological disasters, competing beliefs about blame, differences in compensation, and different narratives about natures and extent of damages tears at the community social fabric?

Corrosive community

what is social capital, according to LIn (2001) ?

resources that are embedded in. ones social networks, which can be accessed or mobilized through ties in the network

what are three types of social capital?

bonding ( connections between people who are emotionally close)

bridging ( connections between acquaintances and individuals who span groups)

linking ( connections between regular citizens and those in power)

My daughter is on a local swim team. I sometimes talk with the other parents briefly
during swim meets and we add each other on Facebook. Sometime over the year, a
hurricane threatens Cancun. My elderly mother is visiting there, can’t get a flight home
and her hotel kicks her out. I post the situation on Facebook, and a swim-parent writes
that his cousin retired to Cancun a few years ago. My mother can stay with them. They
will even come to pick her up. This is an example of what type of social capital?

bridging capital

Some communities with connections to Tokyo and the national government did better
during the recovery period following the 2012 Tohoku triple disaster than those without
this kind of social capital. These connections help prioritize recovery efforts, such as
debris removal and long-term aid. This is an example of what type of social capital?

linking capital

After Hurricane Katrina, people who only had close connections in New Orleans, such as
only having family in the impacted area, were at a disadvantage compared to those with
a lot of family across the country. Those with family across the country could travel and
stay with them. For those who only had family locally, everyone they knew was
impacted and lost so much. This is an example of what type of social capital?

bonding capital

what does a fantasy document refer to in the disaster field?

documents are not generally about the real casues and solutions to disasters, but rather generated to prove that some authoritative actor has done something about a disaster

what is meant by a neo liberal coopting of resilience?

when a celebration of local capacities is used to justify the withdrawal of government support or dismissal of institutional contributors to vulnerability

what are the 3 factors associated with social vulnerability?

temporal ( related to a particular point in time)

spatial ( related to a particular place)

situational ( related to a particular situation)

what is the matthew effect, coined by Robert Merton?

to social process whereby one advantage that an individual has is like to lead to additional advantages

we tend to think incorrectly about the vulnerability as a “state” rather than a “process”. explain what this means in the context of disasters

Vulnerability is more than a demographic category (like age, gender, or national
status). It’s not static or a state (does not remain the same). It changes over
time and context is important.
• The way we organize our communities, organizations, and social life makes
certain groups more vulnerable than others. E.g. anyone may be just as likely to
die if in a building that collapses in an earthquake, but those who live where
building codes are not in place or enforced, or who can’t afford stronger building
materials, or may live in areas more prone to liquefaction are more vulnerable
because they are more likely to find themselves in buildings likely to collapse.

what are the three types of convergence in disasters?

people( or personal)

goods ( or materiel)

information

what are the seven types of personal convergence?

mourners/memorializers

anxious

returnees

curious

helpers

exploiters

supporters

how do those 7 involve in personal convergence claim legitimacy?

creates narratives that supports their claim

arrives early

use existing and emergent values

what challenges noted that are associated with spontaneous material convergence, making it better to donate money after disaster?

there is often nowhere to store goods coming in

needs change quickly

its challenging to sort and distribute miscellaneous items

items can be purchased more cheaply in bulk

according to what is the defintion of convergence in the disaster context?

the movement towards the response milieu, or sites associated with disaster

what does cultural lag describe?

the time difference between the introduction of material innovations and resulting cultural practices

what is an example of cultural lag in the disaster context?

• One example is when government organizations began to direct people to the
information posted on their social media sites but didn’t have sufficient staff to
monitor the comments where people tried to relay information or need
assistance.
• Another example is the use of AI in developing emergency management plans –
this can be helpful, but we don’t know how to draw the line because information
drawn upon may be incorrect, biased, or also AI-driven

what does a risk studies approach emphasize?

high risk technology increase uncertainties

high risk technologies decrease out ability to manage the consequences of their failure

institutions pretend to control the uncontrollable

the resulting disaters’s are inevitable and internal to the social system

environmental and social cues are important for evacuation. what is an example of each?

environmental: is it rainy and windy outside, or calm and sunny

social: are my neighbors packing up their car to leave or planning a hurricane party?

Mileti and Sorenson note the six sequential stages of the warning process. what are these in order?

hearing the warning

understand the warning

believe the warning

personalize the warning

confirm the warning

respond to the warning

when people evacuate, where do they most commonly go ( hotel/ family or friends/public shelter/second home)?

family or friends

warning messages should be sure to what?

be specific ( type pf threat, location, severity, timing, what to do ETC)

be accurate

be consistent

be clear

indicate certainty

what term describes a bias toward thinking in the short term time scale as opposed to long term ones?

myopia

what term describes a cognitive bias that leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings?

normalcy bias

what term describes a bias where there is a tendency to recognize risk but to think that others are more at risk?

optimistic bias